Kids in Juvenile Court get creative outlet

Sunday

Jul 28, 2013 at 9:50 PMJul 28, 2013 at 9:52 PM

By Jacqueline Reis, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — The dancer, barefoot and in a long red dress, has one arm raised, her long dark hair falling to one side, as she lifts one leg in a graceful swirl captured in a watercolor painting at the Worcester Art Museum.

"I like to think that someday that'll be her," volunteer docent Ginny B. Powell-Brasier said of the artist. "That's her spirit."

The artist and her co-exhibitors in one corridor of the museum are court-involved youth participating in Arts Alternative, a collaboration between Worcester County Juvenile Court and the museum.

Not far away, a drawing of a soldier uses the slant of the man's body to show weariness, X's left by tape jump out of a spray-painted background, and a small, detailed drawing of a lizard looks ready to crawl from the paper. The art is signed only with first names and initials.

Children ages 11 to 17 who appear before the court on anything from being a runaway to assault and battery charges can be referred to the program as part of their court-required community service.

Some ask to come even after they've fulfilled the requirements, and the museum has helped make that possible with scholarships.

The youth, some of whom live in foster or group homes, come once a month for two hours, and spend about a half hour in the galleries before another 90 minutes in the studio.

Fiona Ryder, a juvenile probation officer who came up with the program, said the court usually asks youth what their hobbies are. Although there are a lot of sports programs, the court didn't have anywhere to direct budding artists.

"I think a lot of the young people that come through the courts are extremely talented and haven't had an opportunity to explore that talent," she said. "My hope is they have a new avenue to pursue, and they have new interests, and they have a better self-esteem."

With the exhibit, she said, "I also want the community to see how talented these young people are, because I think often young people get a bad rap."

Ms. Ryder collaborated with Cory Shepherd, the museum's outreach director, and Ms. Powell-Brasier, who was a high school English and German teacher for 33 years.

"Many of them have never done anything like this, and it offers them a very positive, creative outlet for their pain, for their anguish," Ms. Powell-Brasier said of the participants, many of whom come from low-income and/or unstable homes. Still, she said, they're like other kids who are "working to find their place in a world that they can't understand."

Only one or two of the students who have come in through Arts Alternative had ever been to the museum before, said Christopher R. Whitehead, the museum's manager of studio class programs.

Art has special benefits, he said.

"The best thing that it does is that it allows them to think creatively … and then that translates into life really well," he said. "If you have the ability to think creatively, you can usually think through it better than if you're not used to flexing that part of the brain."

It can also be "almost therapeutic in the expression it can release," he said.

The museum is free to everyone all summer, and it is always free for people under 18 years old.

The Arts Alternative pieces are in the education wing corridor near the museum's Lancaster Street entrance. The exhibit at the museum will be up until Thursday.

It is hard to know how many children have participated since the program started in April 2012. Participation averages 15 to 20 kids per month, but some of those are youth who choose to return.

It is also hard to know if the program is reducing recidivism among participants, but Judge Carol A. Erskine said the youth referred to the program have not been back before her with any new problems.

"We're very excited about it, because it's a program that's designed to focus on what strengths these kids have," Judge Erskine said. The kids have been excited about it, and they were excited about their future, too, she said.

The collaboration is funded with help from District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.'s office, the Northboro Junior Woman's Club and the Joseph Family, Ms. Ryder said. It received a 2013 Champions of Arts Education Advocacy Award from Natick-based Arts Learning.

Arts Alternative is still looking for additional money for art supplies and frames, she said. Any donations must go through the art museum.

The exhibition's next stop will be the Worcester Courthouse, where it will open with a reception at 3 p.m. Aug. 6.